Call to release mining tax modelling

The federal opposition has called on the government to publicly release all modelling related to its proposed super profits mining tax.

It comes amid a fiery debate over an academic research paper which the government has used to debunk claims by the mining sector that it will be the most highly-taxed in the world.

On Sunday, the government used the US-based National Bureau of Economic Research paper to back its case that multinational miners in Australia pay less company tax than they would in Canada, the United Kingdom or the United States

The government claimed that Australian miners pay company tax of between 13 and 17 cents in the dollar.

The opposition has savaged the paper, saying it does not specifically focus on Australia, does not consider state royalty payments and was completed more than a year ago by a "graduate student".

In parliament, Opposition Leader
Tony Abbott
urged the government to come clean on all Treasury and tax office modelling to "prevent further misinformation".

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The government is defending the proposed tax following repeated attacks from the opposition benches during Monday's question time.

Mr Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan quoted a handful of business and mining experts, including economist Ross Garnaut and businessman Roger Corbett, as proof the government has got it right.

The International Monetary Fund was another supporter of a heftier tax on the miners, Mr Swan said.

"This is what they've said," he told parliament.

"There's a case for this tax to promote investment and secure for governments higher shares of resource rent in profitable projects.

Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey referred to statistics on the Australian Tax Office’s website which show that the effective company tax rate on miners is 27.8 per cent.

That went up to 41.3 per cent when taking royalties into account.

Was the government still sticking by the 17 cents in the dollar claim made in the US report, Mr Hockey persisted.

“Resource profits were ... $80 billion higher in 08-09 than in 99-00 and governments have only collected an additional $9 billion in resources," Mr Rudd said in reply.

“These figures speak for themselves."

Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb attacked the government for lauding the paper as from the reputable National Bureau of Economic Research when in fact, a website disclaimer stated the report reflected the views of the author and “not necessarily" those of the bureau itself.

Mr Rudd maintained that the report was co-authored by an eminent US academic and duly published by the bureau, one of the leading institutes of its kind in the US.